As the variety of available computing devices increases, and as the size of many of these devices decreases, people are increasingly utilizing portable devices such as cellular phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and other electronic devices to perform an ever-increasing variety of tasks. Accordingly, there comes a need to adapt the ways in which users interface with these computing devices to perform these tasks. For example, some devices can receive commands to perform an action (e.g., “call home”) by voice or audio input, but the accuracy of such input can vary based upon factors such as background noise and the number and strength of sources generating detectable audio, as well as the proximity and locations of those sources relative to the person providing the command. While some devices use a directional microphone to capture audio primarily from a user or specific source, such an approach is not optimal when there are multiple sources of input in different locations, or the source of interest moves over time. Further, while some devices might use a noise canceling algorithm to reduce unwanted ambient sounds, these algorithms do not account for audio or sound from locations around the device that can appear or change at any given time.